Friendship

You can become friends with Pelican Town's villagers. As your friendships deepen, the villagers' dialogue lines become more friendly, cut-scenes called heart events occur, and the villagers send you gifts in the mail.

When talking to villagers, a circle will appear next to their portrait. Its color will depend on the number of hearts you have with the villager. Blue denotes 0 hearts, green for 2, yellow for 4, red for 6, purple for 8, and at 10-12 hearts a purple star will appear. Scrolling the mouse over the circle will display the number of hearts out of 10, if not married.

rummaging through a trash can when they're within 7 tiles of you (-25, except Linus who doesn't mind). They will speak to indicate that they have seen you.

You may enter a villager's bedroom when the relevant heart meter reads at least 2 hearts. This level improves access to the villager for talking and gifting.

You receive (or deduct) friendship points as normal on a festival day, based upon any contact with a villager that happens outside of the festival itself. However, talking to a villager during a festival yields no friendship points, although it may reveal interesting information. You may, however, talk with a villager once outside the festival, and talk again during the festival, if the festival schedule and place permit it. But if attending the festival means you have no possibility of talking to a villager, you will still lose two friendship points.

Friendship points can increase up to a maximum of 2749 (one point less than 11 hearts), when you do talk or give a liked or loved gift to a villager whose heart meter is full.

With marriage candidates, the meter pauses at 8 hearts. It will stay that way forever unless you give the candidate a bouquet to indicate your romantic interest. If you do so, that meter is unlocked again and operates as before until ten hearts is reached and it registers as full. It is possible to give a bouquet to any and all marriage candidates, and raise all their friendship levels to 10 hearts, without damage to your relationships with other romantic partners, so long as you have not yet proposed.

When you propose marriage, the heart meters of all other marriage candidates convert to the behavior of all other villagers, since none are marriage candidates any longer. In three days, when you then marry, your spouse's meter unlocks once again. The social tab displays a 12-heart meter, but the friendship level actually can rise as far as 13 hearts.

Decay

Each day, not talking to a villager will slightly decrease their friendship unless their heart meter is full.[1] When married, decay never stops — don't ignore your spouse!

Gifts

You can give each villager one gift per day, up to two gifts per week, as indicated by the checkboxes in the social tab. For the purpose of gift-giving, the week begins on Sunday. If you give a villager two gifts in a week, that heart meter will rise an additional ten friendship points on Sunday morning when you get up.

You can always give a birthday gift to a villager, even if you've already given that character two other gifts that week. Glitch: If you do, one of the checkbox checks against their name will disappear. Even so, you cannot then give yet another gift that week.

You can give your spouse one gift every day of the week.

Each villager has individual likes and dislikes, which affects how many friendship points are gained when you give them a gift. The friendship points are multiplied on their birthday (×8) and Secret Santa event (×5):

Gift Taste

Normal

Santa (×5)

Birthday (×8)

Love

+80

+400

+640

Like

+45

+225

+360

Neutral

+20

+100

+160

Dislike

-20

-100

-160

Hate

-40

-200

-320

If a gift is liked or loved, the points gained will be further affected by quality of the item:

Quality

Multiplier

Normal

+0%

Silver

+10%

Gold

+25%

Iridium

+50%

Heart Events

Gaining friendship with each villager will unlock unique events (see each villager's article for the requirements). It's possible to permanently miss some events, though most events can be viewed at your leisure or out of order.

Romance

Some villagers can be romanced by the player (see marriage candidates). Once you've reached eight hearts with an eligible villager, you can give them a bouquet to unlock the ninth and tenth hearts. (You can give bouquets to multiple villagers with no repercussions before marriage. Doing so after marriage may lose friendship points with your spouse.) Once you've reached ten hearts with an eligible villager, you can give them a Mermaid's Pendant to propose.

After you've married a villager, they get an expanded twelve-heart friendship meter. Reaching the hidden thirteenth heart will net you a stardrop.

Bulletin Board Bundles

Completing all Bulletin Board bundles improves the player's friendship rating with non-datable villagers by two hearts (500 points). Note that this applies only to non-datable villagers whom you have met in person. Villagers who do not show on the "Social" tab of the player menu and villagers whose names appear as "???" will not receive 500 points.

Note that you do not have to understand Dwarvish for the Dwarf to receive 500 points. In contrast, you do have to understand Dwarvish for gifts to affect friendship with the Dwarf.

Universal Gifts

Below are lists of items that are universally loved, liked, considered neutral, disliked, or hated. Note that there are some exceptions and that individual villager tastes override any universal tastes.
Preferences for Eggs, Milk, Fruit, and most Foraged Items vary by villager, and are generally not listed here.